But apt the mind of fancy is to rove
Uncheck'd, and of her roving is no end,

Till warn'd, or by experience taught, she learn,
That not to know at large of things remote
From ufe, obfcure and fubtle, but to know
That, which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom; what is more is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,

And renders us in things that most concern,
Unpractis'd, unprepar'd, and still to seek.

These beautiful lines are built in fome measure, as Bentley has remarked, upon a verse of Homer, the very verse admired by Socrates, which Dr. Johnson has not fcrupled to quote, as a part of his fingular ill-grounded attempt to prove that Milton's ideas of education were in direct oppofition to those of the great moralift of Greece; an attempt that arose from a very inoffenfive boaft of Milton's nephew, who gives a long lift of books perused by the scholars of his uncle, which merely proves, that they read more books than are usually read in our common schools; and that their diligent instructor thought it advisable for boys, as they approach towards fixteen, to blend a little knowledge of the fciences with their Greek and Latin.

That he taught the familiar and useful doctrine of the Attic philofopher, even in his lighter poetry, we have a pleasing instance in the following lines of his fonnet to Syriac Skinner, who was one of his fcholars :

"To measure life learn thou betimes, and know
"Toward folid good what leads the neareft way."

But his brief treatife, addreffed to Hartlib, affords, perhaps, the best proof that his ideas of moral difcipline were perfectly in unifon with thofe of Socrates; he fays, in that treatise, " I call a complete "and generous education that, which fits a man to

perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously, all "the offices, both private and public, of peace and "war." Who can define a good education in terms more truly Socratic?

Milton, however, in his attachment to morality, forgot not the claims of religion; his Sundays were devoted to theology, and Johnfon duly praises the care, with which he inftructed his fcholars in the primary duties of men.

With a critic fo fincerely devout as Johnfon unquestionably was, we might have hoped that the 'fublime piety of our author would have fecured him from farcaftic attacks; but we have yet to notice two infults of this kind, which the acrimony of uncorrected spleen has lavished upon Milton as a preceptor.

"From this wonder-working academy," fays the biographer," I do not know that there ever pro"ceeded any man very eminent for knowledge; "its only genuine product, I believe, is a small "history of poetry, written in Latin by his nephew, "of which, perhaps, none of my readers ever "heard." The contemptuous fpirit and the inaccuracy of this farcafin are equally remarkable. The fcholars of Milton were far from being numerous. Can it be just to speak with derifion of a fmall academy, merely because it raifes no celebrat

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ed author, when we confider how few of that description every nation produces? We know little of thofe, who were under the tuition of our poet, except his two nephews; thefe were both writers ; and a biographer of Milton fhould not have utterly forgotten his obligations to Edward Philips, if he allowed no credit to his brother, for the spirited Latin treatise in which that young man appeared as the defender of his uncle. But the ftriking inaccuracy of the critic confifts in not giving a juft account of a book that particularly claimed his attention, Philips's Theatrum Poetarum, a book that, under a Latin title, contains in English a very comprehenfive lift of poets, ancient and modern, with reflections upon many of them, particularly those of our own nation. It is remarkable that this book was licensed Sept. 14, 1674, just two months before the death of Milton, and printed the following year. The author affigns an article both to his uncle and his brother. After enumerating the chief works of the former, he modeftly fays, " how far he hath re"vived the majesty and true decorum of heroic દ poefy and tragedy, it will better become a perfon "lefs related than myself to deliver his judgment."

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Though he here fuppreffes a defire to praise his most eminent relation, it bursts forth in an amiable manner, when he comes to speak of his brother; for he calls him, "the maternal nephew and difci"ple of an author of most deserved fame, late de"ceafed, being the exactest of heroic poets (if the "truth were well examined, and it is the opinion "of many, both learned and judicious perfons)

"either

"either of the ancients or moderns, either of our own or whatever nation else."

I transcribe with pleasure this honeft and fimple eulogy; it does credit to the intelligence and affection of the poet's disciple, and it in some measure vindicates the good fenfe of our country, by fhewing that, in the very year of Milton's decease, when fome writers have fuppofed that his poetical merit was almost utterly unknown, there were perfons in the nation, who understood his full value.

Let us return to the author in his little academy, and the fecond farcaftic infult, which his biographer has bestowed upon him as the master of a school. The lodging in which he settled, on his arrival from the continent, was foon exchanged for a more spacious house and garden, in Alderfgate-street, that fupplied him with conveniencies for the reception of fcholars on this occafion Johnson exclaims, let

not our veneration for Milton forbid us to look "with fome degree of merriment on great promises "and small performance; on the man who haftens "home, because his countrymen are contending for "their liberty, and, when he reaches the scene of "action, vapours away his patriotism in a private "boarding-school."

To excite merriment by rendering Milton ridiculous for having preferred the pen to the fword, was an enterprise that surpassed the powers of Johnson; the attempt affords a melancholy proof how far prejudice may mislead a very vigorous understanding. What but the blind hatred of bigotry could have tempted one great author to deride another,

another, merely for having thought that he might serve his country more effentially by the rare and highly cultivated faculties of his mind, than by the ordinary service of a foldier. But let us hear Milton on this fubject. We have this obligation to the malice of his contemporaries, that it led him to speak publicly of himself, and to relate, in the most manly and explicit manner, the real motives of his conduct.

Speaking of the English people, in the commencement of his Second Defence, he fays*, "it "was the juft vindication of their laws and their "religion, that neceffarily led them into civil war ; they have driven fervitude from them by the most "honourable arms; in which praife, though I can

*

Quos non legum contemptus aut violatio in effrænatam licentiam effudit; non virtutis & gloriæ falfa species, aut ftulta veterum æmulatio inani nomine libertatis incendit, fed innocentia vitæ, morumque fanctitas rectum atque folum iter ad libertatem veram docuit, legum et religionis juftiffima defenfio neceffariò armavit. Atque illi quidem Deo perinde confifi, fervitutem honeftiffimis armis pepulere: cujus laudis etfi nullam partem mihi vendico, a reprehenfione tamen vel timiditatis vel ignaviæ, fi qua infertur, facile me tuero. Neque enim militiæ labores & pericula fic defugi, ut non alia ratione, & operam, multo utiliorem, nec minore cum periculo meis civibus navarim, & animum dubiis in rebus neque demiffum unquam, neque illius invidiæ, vel etiam mortis plus æquo metuentem præftiterim. Nam cum ab adolefcentulo humanioribus effem ftudiis, ut qui maxime deditus, & ingenio femper quam corpore validior, pofthabitâ caftrenfi operâ, quâ me gregarius quilibet robuftior facile fuperaffet, ad ea me contuli, quibus plus potui; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, fi faperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, caufamque hanc præftantiffimam, quantum maxime poffem momentum accederem.

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